mantajohn
Contributor
Ive found many trip reports on Scubaboard helpful in planning dive trips, so I thought I would reciprocate by writing up my recent Wind Dancer trip. Apologies if it doesnt hit the spot for you its my first attempt at a trip report!
Overall:
A great vessel, with a highly skilled crew who work hard to give you the best possible trip; stunning food; beautiful diving. Would I recommend Wind Dancer from Grenada most definitely yes.
Transfer/Arrival:
Travelling from the UK, we arrived in Barbados on the Friday & connected through to Grenada around Saturday lunchtime. Contrary to many other postings that Ive seen, LIAT delivered us & our baggage on time. Peter Hughes organised the transfer to the True Blue Resort & this worked fine. We enjoyed fajitas & a couple of cold beers until the tender arrived bang on time at 5pm to take us aboard.
I would recommend planning to arrive on the Friday for any Caribbean liveaboard. Airlines in the region seem to have a poor record two people booked on this trip (flying with AA) missed the departure on Saturday. Skipper (Simon) did a great job, re-jigging the route to connect with them on Monday pm, but a shame to miss the first 2 days of a trip.
Boat/Cabin/Food/Crew:
Wind dancer is a substantial vessel built I, believe, to fish off Alaska. Lounge/dining area is roomy & v comfortable. Shade & sun bathing areas on the upper deck. Cabins are somewhat cosy though no different to those on Caribbean Aggressors. Proper toilets & loads of hot water for the shower. At first, I was put off by the lack of a window/port hole but in fact this gives you extra sleep as it means you dont wake at sunrise.
Cabins 3-6 are larger than 7-10 so request a low number if you can.
There is a larger crew than I had experienced on similar liveaboards which meant that they always had time for all their guests truly an excellent team.
Food my comparison are the Cayman & T&C Aggressors. Both of these have excellent food but Ryan on Wind Dancer definitely puts them in the shade. He is most certainly a chef not a cook. He announced at dinner on the first night that he aimed to provide better food each & every day. The consensus was that he succeeded.
Our trip had a full complement of 18 guests, but never felt crowded.
Dive Set Up:
Diving is by means of 2 tenders each taking up to 10 divers. Once set up, your kit stays on your allocated tender for the duration of the trip. Average times to the dive sites were around 15 mins each way. Excellent dive briefings. Nitrox reliably at 32% & the best fills ever. 240 bar most days, so everyone could relax and make a 60 min dive.
Itinerary:
The itinerary takes in Grenada, St Vincent & the Grenadines. Theyve extended the itinerary up to St Vincent in 2009 this is a great addition. The dive sites around St Vincent were very good. We moored up at Wallilabou Bay (Young Island) for 2 nights. This is the location of Pirates of the Caribbean set & is truly beautiful.
Some nice views of the Islands throughout the week.
Only a small amount of late night or early morning passage - & this only due to the adjusted itinerary for the late joiners.
Diving & dive Sites:
Good dive guiding, but they are also happy for you to head off with your buddy & do your own thing.
23 dives were offered I managed 21. 1 missed as I could not equalise & I skipped one of the night dives, choosing a few glasses of red with dinner instead!
Some great wall dives, a couple of shallow critter dives & the finale Bianca C.
The reefs are in great condition. Most days, virtually no exposed rock. Every inch seemed covered with some form of life. Great sponges & soft corals everywhere. As on previous Caribbean trips, Ive really noticed how few fish there are compared to e.g. the Red Sea or Maldives, nevertheless, our sightings included: Sting rays, turtles, squid, octopus, all sorts of morays, snake eels, many trunk fish, peacock flounders, Pederson cleaner shrimps, blennies, jawfish, slipper & Spanish lobsters, flying gurnards, porcupine fish, schools of Southern Sennet, magnificent sea urchin, banded shrimps & sea horses.
Boulders at Bequia must be one of the most beautiful dives anywhere.
Unexpectedly, I really enjoyed the Bianca C. I only did that dive as my buddy was keen, but it was a wonderful dive. On reaching the deck, we had just 11 mins no deco time, so we steadily swam the length of the deck, arriving at the bows 20 mins into the dive & putting up our SMBs with just 2 mins no deco left. Great visibility. Its huge & quite an atmospheric dive.
Any negatives?
A couple of small ones just personal preferences really:
I was expecting the diving to be a little more challenging. In fact I specifically chose Grenada in the hope of finding some good current/drift dives. Apparently this is true at other times of the year, but in June, its very tame.
The dive schedule was a tad leisurely. The first dive was after breakfast & the night dive whenever dinner happened to finish. This meant some quit short surface intervals in the day & night dives that started v late.
Overall:
A great vessel, with a highly skilled crew who work hard to give you the best possible trip; stunning food; beautiful diving. Would I recommend Wind Dancer from Grenada most definitely yes.
Transfer/Arrival:
Travelling from the UK, we arrived in Barbados on the Friday & connected through to Grenada around Saturday lunchtime. Contrary to many other postings that Ive seen, LIAT delivered us & our baggage on time. Peter Hughes organised the transfer to the True Blue Resort & this worked fine. We enjoyed fajitas & a couple of cold beers until the tender arrived bang on time at 5pm to take us aboard.
I would recommend planning to arrive on the Friday for any Caribbean liveaboard. Airlines in the region seem to have a poor record two people booked on this trip (flying with AA) missed the departure on Saturday. Skipper (Simon) did a great job, re-jigging the route to connect with them on Monday pm, but a shame to miss the first 2 days of a trip.
Boat/Cabin/Food/Crew:
Wind dancer is a substantial vessel built I, believe, to fish off Alaska. Lounge/dining area is roomy & v comfortable. Shade & sun bathing areas on the upper deck. Cabins are somewhat cosy though no different to those on Caribbean Aggressors. Proper toilets & loads of hot water for the shower. At first, I was put off by the lack of a window/port hole but in fact this gives you extra sleep as it means you dont wake at sunrise.
Cabins 3-6 are larger than 7-10 so request a low number if you can.
There is a larger crew than I had experienced on similar liveaboards which meant that they always had time for all their guests truly an excellent team.
Food my comparison are the Cayman & T&C Aggressors. Both of these have excellent food but Ryan on Wind Dancer definitely puts them in the shade. He is most certainly a chef not a cook. He announced at dinner on the first night that he aimed to provide better food each & every day. The consensus was that he succeeded.
Our trip had a full complement of 18 guests, but never felt crowded.
Dive Set Up:
Diving is by means of 2 tenders each taking up to 10 divers. Once set up, your kit stays on your allocated tender for the duration of the trip. Average times to the dive sites were around 15 mins each way. Excellent dive briefings. Nitrox reliably at 32% & the best fills ever. 240 bar most days, so everyone could relax and make a 60 min dive.
Itinerary:
The itinerary takes in Grenada, St Vincent & the Grenadines. Theyve extended the itinerary up to St Vincent in 2009 this is a great addition. The dive sites around St Vincent were very good. We moored up at Wallilabou Bay (Young Island) for 2 nights. This is the location of Pirates of the Caribbean set & is truly beautiful.
Some nice views of the Islands throughout the week.
Only a small amount of late night or early morning passage - & this only due to the adjusted itinerary for the late joiners.
Diving & dive Sites:
Good dive guiding, but they are also happy for you to head off with your buddy & do your own thing.
23 dives were offered I managed 21. 1 missed as I could not equalise & I skipped one of the night dives, choosing a few glasses of red with dinner instead!
Some great wall dives, a couple of shallow critter dives & the finale Bianca C.
The reefs are in great condition. Most days, virtually no exposed rock. Every inch seemed covered with some form of life. Great sponges & soft corals everywhere. As on previous Caribbean trips, Ive really noticed how few fish there are compared to e.g. the Red Sea or Maldives, nevertheless, our sightings included: Sting rays, turtles, squid, octopus, all sorts of morays, snake eels, many trunk fish, peacock flounders, Pederson cleaner shrimps, blennies, jawfish, slipper & Spanish lobsters, flying gurnards, porcupine fish, schools of Southern Sennet, magnificent sea urchin, banded shrimps & sea horses.
Boulders at Bequia must be one of the most beautiful dives anywhere.
Unexpectedly, I really enjoyed the Bianca C. I only did that dive as my buddy was keen, but it was a wonderful dive. On reaching the deck, we had just 11 mins no deco time, so we steadily swam the length of the deck, arriving at the bows 20 mins into the dive & putting up our SMBs with just 2 mins no deco left. Great visibility. Its huge & quite an atmospheric dive.
Any negatives?
A couple of small ones just personal preferences really:
I was expecting the diving to be a little more challenging. In fact I specifically chose Grenada in the hope of finding some good current/drift dives. Apparently this is true at other times of the year, but in June, its very tame.
The dive schedule was a tad leisurely. The first dive was after breakfast & the night dive whenever dinner happened to finish. This meant some quit short surface intervals in the day & night dives that started v late.
Where are your pictures? 
